Development of production planning process

Abstract

The thesis was commissioned by a systems supplier of mechanical subassemblies called Komas. The subject of the thesis arose from the commissioner’s desire to develop and decentralize his production planning processes to the production cell. The aim of the thesis was to create a tool that would assist in the production scheduling activity. The tool had to satisfy two needs. The first one was to automate and make the production scheduling activity more efficient and fluent. The second need involved calculating the optimal lot size for production. The workload of the project was focused on the preliminary study and the construction of the desired tool. During the preliminary study the current production planning process was carefully defined. Requirements of the desired tool were gathered and the cost structure of the supply chain was analysed. The construction phase meant designing the actual production scheduling tool. The two initial needs which were set for the desired tool had so different characteristics from one another, that two different tools were designed for the processes. Both of the tools were Excel based applications. The aim of the thesis was reached. The tools were delivered on time. Moreover, the benefits of the created production scheduling -tool were tangible and acknowledged among the key users. The benefits included an estimated 50 per cent reduction in the workload of the production planning process. The benefits of the lot size calculation tool, however, were inconsistent, as some areas of the supply chain could not be included in the calculation model.